The Senate is a University-wide legislature, representing faculty, students, and other constituencies. It makes policy on a range of issues that affect the entire University or more than one school, including educational programs and priorities, the budget, academic freedom and tenure, the conduct of research, the libraries, information technology, Columbia's external relations, student sexual misconduct, rules governing political demonstrations, and the welfare of faculty, students, and research officers. Trustee concurrence is required for acts of the Senate.

The Senate has 108 voting seats, with 63 reserved for faculty, 24 for students, 6 for officers of research,
2 each for administrative staff, librarians, and alumni, and 9 for senior administrators including the president, who chairs monthly plenaries.

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STUDENT MEDIA CREDENTIALS

The next deadline is
11:59 p.m.,
September 30, 2019.

For further information, please write to senate@columbia.edu.

Paul Duby, Emeritus Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering, passed away on May 4. Prof. Duby served on the Senate from 1983 to 2009, including 18 years as chair of the Executive Committee, and continued to serve as a non-senator on various committees afterward. He was honored with a resolution on his retirement from the Senate.

Sen. John Coatsworth received an ovation at the May 3 plenary in recognition of his service as Provost and university senator, and a resolution was presented in his honor, citing "his transparent and forthright engagement with the Senate over the past eight years." A scholar of Latin American economic and international history, he was named dean of SIPA in 2007 and took on the role of Provost in 2011. He will return to the professorial life in July.

Sen. June Cross (Tenured, Journalism) presented an update at the May 3 plenary on the work of the Subcommittee on the School of Professional Studies, which she chairs. The subcommittee has been examining whether the school's rapid expansion may have consequences for Columbia's institutional reputation, and whether the budgetary dependence of the Arts and Sciences on tuition revenue from SPS is a sustainable arrangement.

SENATE PLENARIES 2019-2020

PROVISIONAL DATES

All Fridays at 1:15 p.m.
unless otherwise indicated. Locations to be announced.